Medical instruments, and more particularly surgical instruments, are generally subjected to rigorous monitoring that is intended to guarantee their conditions of use regarding decontamination and the safety of the patients. This monitoring consists of recording and updating all useful information concerning the instrument, such as its serial number, the dates on which it was serviced or sterilised, the number of times used, etc. To this end, electronic labels, also called transponders or RFID tags (radio frequency identification tags), are used widely since they have considerable advantages. Attached to an instrument, and in association with a read and/or write module fitted with an antenna and a central computer, they can be used to write, read and store a large number of data relating to this instrument. The recording of information can be effected automatically during a cleaning operation, so as to limit human error for example. Such a method of working is described in document EP 0 992 212 for example. These electronic labels are also extremely reliable and can tolerate the high temperatures of the sterilisation procedures.
Concerning the simple metal instruments, such as scissors, scalpels, etc., the transponders are generally fixed onto a non-functional zone of the tool, such as its handle for example. In this case, they are placed in a metal container, which itself is welded to the handle.
For more complex instruments that include several parts assembled together, of which at least one is a tool, the transponder is generally attached to an outside part so as to be easy to reach for reading and writing. As an example, document EP 1 480 153 shows an endoscope formed of an invasive part, an optical coupling unit, and a control equipped with a transponder. This arrangement of the transponder on an outside part of the endoscope is not ideal, particularly in the case of partial or total dismantling of the instrument for cleaning, or for changing an element for example. In fact, once the instrument has been dismantled, the various parts and in particular the active parts are no longer identifiable. If several instruments are dismantled simultaneously, their parts can be inverted on reassembly. As a consequence, only the tracing process of the labelled part can really be guaranteed. More seriously still, incompatibility between the various parts can occur following such inversion. The operation of the instrument, and as a consequence the health of the patient, are then at risk.
From document EP 1 774 917, a medical instrument is known that includes a tubular metal element, a tool fixed to one of its ends, and means to operate the tool coupled to its other end. According to this document, the tubular element houses a passive cylindrical transponder containing information relating to the tool. However, this document concerns only a certain type of medical instrument, such as a laparoscope, which includes an interchangeable tool attached to a rod mounted inside an actuator.
Finally, document FR 2 811 923 proposes a rasp that is intended to prepare the intramedullar canal of a bone so that it can receive a prosthesis later. The rasp includes a body, lying along an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the canal, of variable cross section, composed of a so-called upper face and an outer envelope, and having a shape that is designed to fit onto the inner wall of the intramedullar canal of the bone. The rasp ends in a shape that is profiled to facilitate the driving of the rasp into the canal. Male or female geometrical elements, placed on the upper face of the body, constitute a click-on system that is intended to receive an end-piece forming the end of a handle to manipulate the rasp in the canal, and that is intended to receive test prosthetic components when appropriate.